O'Rourke: Daughter's first was something to flip over

By Michael O'Rourke

Updated 11:28 am, Saturday, September 22, 2012

There are certain moments in life you will always remember. Many of them fall into the category of firsts. First time you rode a bike without training wheels, first kiss, first girlfriend and first time you ever drove a car without a parent in the car certainly rank as moments one always recalls with a perfect clarity. The firsts are especially memorable when they involve something you weren't ever sure would actually happen. I put first girlfriend in that category.

This week my youngest daughter had one of those life-altering moments. She now has one of those firsts that she had been working toward for years and I think had relegated to the list of things she never thought would happen. This week, 12-year-old Emily performed her first aerial cartwheel.

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I had heard her talk about it for a while, but I never even really knew what she was referring to until we were watching an episode of TLC's "Dance Moms" (don't judge me) and one of the little girls flipped her legs up into the air and did a cartwheel without touching the ground with her hands. A no-hands cartwheel?

"That's an aerial, Dad," Emily gleefully shouted while pointing at the television set. "That is what I am working toward." She grabbed the remote and jumped the picture back so we could watch it again. She hit another button, and we watched it in slow motion. While she may not yet have mastered the aerial cartwheel, she sure as heck had mastered the remote control. We watched it over and over.

Watching the little girl on television made my stomach do a no-hands cartwheel. It wasn't that the TV girl was ever in danger. It was simply the fact that I didn't want my little girl ending up on a stretcher, wearing a Thomas collar and saying, "Did you see, Dad? I almost did it," as she was being loaded into the back of an ambulance. Trust me, that was all I was picturing.

Like a lot of little girls, Emily has been taking dance lessons since she was 4. When you have a daughter, it is almost a forgone conclusion that you will be spending a lot of time in the lobby of a dance studio. (You will also hear a lot about ponies, but that's another column.)

Emily is a cartwheelaholic. Two-handed. One-handed. She can't stop. The desire to do a no-handed cartwheel made me feel like an intervention might be necessary. I spouted the usual dadisms. "I don't want you to get hurt." "You be careful." "Don't rush into it." With three daughters, I find that I say those a lot.

My wife called from the dance studio and announced, "Emily just tried an aerial." I waited for her to finish with, "so meet me at the medical center." She didn't. The aerial was successful.

When she got home, we went into the frontyard, and she did a dozen aerials for me. I nearly had a dozen heart attacks.

It was a sight to see, and her smile was contagious. So Emily has a bona-fide first to add to her memory collection. I think I may now have my first ulcer. Being a dad ain't always easy.